A grab-bag of not-that-quality pictures, today. It's been kind of a crazy week.

We went to Lebanon to see my dad and stepmom and their dog Mojo. Mojo is a character.

We had a birthday dinner and I baked a cake for Eric's cousin, James. We had him over with his lovely girlfriend, Rene, and played Apples To Apples.

Christmas Dewey.

Violet went outside in the mud this morning and came in like this.

Collie Snoozes.

Violet's taking a nap, while I apply online to help TriState Collie Rescue with events or transport. We're not in a position to foster any Collies in need right now, but I'd love to help them out if we can!

Cream puffs and other things.

Today for dinner I made chicken florentine, baked potatoes, and cream puffs from scratch. They were the hugest pain in my ass - I screwed up one step very, very minorly, but it caused the cream to come out much too thin (almost liquid) and led me to do all sorts of ridiculous things to remedy the situation (including but certainly not limited to adding whipped cream in hopes of adding some "fluff" - homemade whipped cream, which I made on the spot, which took a while, what kind of person keeps heavy whipping cream on hand but not some damn aerosol Cool Whip? Me.), and ultimately it came out a perfect consistency. The original recipe is here, I tweaked a few things. If you try it, make sure you don't take the cream off the heat too soon. I got jumpy about not burning it and it didn't get to thicken enough.

How did I ever cook anything before I had a trusty and loyal Collie to lay beside me in the kitchen? 

Dewey pulled a huge blanket out of the crate and across the room to make himself a little nest and settle in during the cooking.

They got a little wild.

Thank God for patient Collies. Violet wonders when Dewey's gonna be done being a baby.

She's learning a "bang" trick. Basically the word "bang" and a finger gun cues a "play dead." She demonstrates above.

Gourds.

Eric's cactus.

The incredible potty trained three month old. Dewey, asking to go outside.

 

Red bell pepper.

Cream puffs!

In other news, I decided once and for all today to try to apply to the BSW program at IUPUI. I've been back and forth between a bachelor's in psychology and a bachelor's in social work for months, completely angsty and indecisive about it. Both have pros and cons, BSW program is more relevant to my career goals/plans to get my MSW post-grad, but my big hang-up has been that it's fairly competitive to get into. I'll need a lot of volunteer work and letters of recommendation between now and next fall semester, but when I type that out, not going for it seems like a cop-out, and it is. I'm nervous about starting in January, I feel like I have no frame of reference for what to expect (will it be easier than I think? Harder? Will I be completely overwhelmed? Bored?), and I don't. (More on that another day.) But the way the timing works out, I don't have to apply until I've finished the spring and summer semesters, so I think I'll have my footing at that point, and if I feel like I should stick with psychology then, I can. But if not, I'll be starting on volunteer work now and will be putting myself on a path that will allow me to apply for the BSW program if I feel like I can. I feel good about it. Mary has some contacts that may get me hooked up with a soup kitchen (I'm excited - I love volunteering), and my grandmother's church has some opportunities as well. I'm hoping to get three regular/recurring volunteers positions lined up within the next week or so.

We went to the park with the dogs today, then to my grandparents' house. They lost their five year old dachshund, Lizzie, very unexpectedly on Thursday. She began vomiting and became lethargic overnight Wednesday. When they took her to the vet (my second clinic, I worked there for two years, and Dr. Borst, the owner goes to church with my grandparents) first thing in the morning, her temperature was 98 degrees (well below normal for a dog), and she was salivating. The clinic ran bloodwork, and everything was off. She died on the table shortly thereafter, and they were left suspecting antifreeze poisoning. My grandparents live in an apartment with no yard and walked her every time she was outside, but she could have licked something in a parking space. Very sad. The dog was truly a landshark, but she was great with them and they loved her very much.

We went to their apartment today to check on them and bring a sympathy card (Granny is doing well, she's had several dogs and is perhaps a little more accustomed to the grief of losing one, and Lizzie was more his - Gramps is still very, very torn up about it), and my mother was also there with her new dog, Jack, a black and cream longhaired dachshund. He's a very sweet boy. I took a lot of pictures today.

Violet on the way to the park. She has some recent car anxiety, I'm not 100% sure what to do about it but I've been trying to take her on short, frequent trips with lots of positive reinforcement. She seems to be improving, but you can see the anxious body language here.

Butt feathers. Eric says, "She looks like she's wearing pants." She does.

Little Dewey, big world.

I kept trying to get a picture of Violet, and she just kept talking.

  

 

Co-pilot

My grandparents.

 

The last of fall's mums.

My grandmother had this chalkboard in her kitchen in the house in Michigan for as long as I can remember, including when she met Gramps, 15 years ago. At some point shortly after they met (at the tender age of 50), he wrote her initials (JAG) and a heart on it when she wasn't looking. She never erased it, even when she moved to Indiana a year ago.

They're fake.

Jack. New kid in the family.

My (long deceased) great grandfather's shaving supplies.

Pacmen/Violet Kills Toys

Dewey and Eric

Dewey and Eric

Violet kills toys. Not that I suspected a tennis ball was heavy duty, but I'm still on the hunt for a truly heavy duty (i.e., takes her 2+ months to kill it) toy. Christmas is coming.

At least she enjoys herself.

This wasn't even supposed to be a picture. I was taking a picture of Violet, and the camera glitched or something and the shutter clicked long after I'd moved the camera away from her and was just holding it in my lap...and caught this.